Disco Queen Donna Summer Dies At 63

1970's hitmaker Donna Summer died Thursday in Floriada after a battle with cancer. The five-time Grammy winners is known for seventies megahits like 'On the Radio,' 'Last Dance,' and 'I Feel Love.'

Adam Yauch Of The Beastie Boys Dies At 47

Adam Yauch, the gravelly voiced Beastie Boys rapper has died. He was 47. Yauch's representatives confirmed that the rapper died Friday morning in New York after a nearly three-year battle with cancer.

Black Activists Blast Breast Cancer Guidelines

By: Jackie Jones, BlackAmericaWeb.com

The American Cancer Society has reported that racial and ethnic minorities still tend to receive lower-quality health care than whites even when insurance status, income, age and severity of conditions are comparable and are still more likely to be diagnosed with cancer at a later stage when treatment is less successful.

 

Black Activists Blast Breast Cancer Guidelines....

Study: Lots of Red Meat Increases Risk of Death by Over 20 Percent

By: Carla K. Johnson

CHICAGO - The largest study of its kind finds that older Americans who eat large amounts of red meat and processed meats face a greater risk of death from heart disease and cancer.

The federal study of more than half a million men and women bolsters prior evidence of the health risks of diets laden with red meat like hamburger and processed meats like hot dogs, bacon and cold cuts.

Calling the increased risk modest, lead author Rashmi Sinha of the National Cancer Institute said the findings support the advice of several health groups to limit red and processed meat intake to decrease cancer risk.

The findings appear in Monday's Archives of Internal Medicine.

Over 10 years, eating the equivalent of a quarter-pound hamburger daily gave men in the study a 22 percent higher risk of dying of cancer and a 27 percent higher risk of dying of heart disease. That's compared to those who ate the least red meat, just five ounces per week.

Women who ate large amounts of red meat had a 20 percent higher risk of dying of cancer and a 50 percent higher risk of dying of heart disease than women who ate less.

Study: Lots of Red Meat Increases Risk of Death by Over 20 Percent....

FDA Warns About Fake Cancer Treatments

By: Natasha T. Metzler, Associated Press

WASHINGTON - (AP) The Food and Drug Administration is cracking down on teas, supplements, creams and other products that falsely claim to cure, treat or prevent cancer even though they are not agency-approved drugs. All are available for sale on the Internet.

The agency has sent 25 warning letters to companies and individuals marketing these products, FDA officials said Tuesday. Twenty-three of the letters went to domestic companies and two to foreign individuals.

Fake Cancer Treatments....

UPI VIDEO NEWS 01.03.08

Obama takes the lead in Iowa.

Senator Barack Obama has grabbed the number one Democratic spot in Iowa as voting for the 2008 presidential election begins there today. That's according to a new poll just released. Barack Obama is in a four-point lead over John Edwards. Hillary Clinton has faded to third. In the Republican race, Mike Huckabee expanded his lead six points over former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney. Former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson is in third place. Today's contest in Iowa kicks off a state-by-state battle to choose Republican and Democratic candidates for the November election to replace President Bush.

Meanwhile, New York mayor Michael Bloomberg is denying that he'll run for president. There's been speculation recently that the mayor may jump into the race after it was announced that he would attend a forum next week. That forum is being led by a bipartisan group that believes the Republican and Democratic parties are out of touch. Bloomberg is now independent. Earlier today, he said he's going to focus on being mayor and wants to see an independent approach in the '08 elections to stop partisan bickering and special interests.

The U.S. Justice Department is launching an investigation into the CIA's destruction of those videotapes. The tapes showed harsh interrogation techniques of terrorism suspects. The CIA says it acted lawfully, but critics say the agency ignored court orders and investigators' requests that it hand over evidence in various terrorism cases.

A California congressman is retiring after being diagnosed with cancer. Democrat Tom Lantos says he will not seek re-election this year because of his disease's treatment and development. The 79-year-old, who's the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, says he has esophageal cancer. Lantos is the latest of more than a dozen members to announce plans to leave the House at the end of the year.

RESULTS OF PROSTATE STUDY AMONG BLACK MEN

They're more fatalistic about the disease & show less religious coping.



A survey of African-American and Nigerian men shows that Black American males are more fatalistic in their cancer beliefs and are less likely to employ religious coping skills when fighting cancer.

The first of its kind study was conducted by researchers based at predominantly Black Florida A&M University and the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center.

"Men who have fatalistic beliefs about prostate cancer … may be less likely to take the steps necessary to prevent cancer or undergo cancer screening to detect cancer," says lead researcher Professor Folakemi Odedina of FAMU's Economic, Social & Administrative Pharmacy program. She added, "These are cultural beliefs that compound existing health disparities for African American men."

Odedina's team found that African America men are 60 percent less likely than West African men to possess the religious coping skills which might be able to help sustain them during cancer treatment.

Currently, African American men tend to suffer disproportionately from aggressive prostate cancer which is often detected at a much later stage in its development and in thus more difficult to treat.

Among the study's findings was Black American men tend to know more about prostate cancer than their African counterparts but cultural and religious beliefs cause them to take less preventive action.

The findings were reported last week in Atlanta at the American Association for Cancer Research Conference on "The Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved."

CANCER RISK HIGHER IN POOR BLACK WOMEN

Study of women in D.C. public housing shows sobering results.

Reuters reports that impoverished black women in U.S. cities face a greater risk of getting cancer because of unhealthy diets, according to a report released on Wednesday.

The study of more than 150 women living in public housing in Washington, D.C., found that 61 percent of them met none or just one of five goals for maintaining a healthy diet.

The goals included adequate consumption of fruit and vegetables, a low percentage of fat intake, consuming no alcohol, eating moderate calories and adhering to a U.S. government Healthy Eating Index, which measures overall quality of diet.

"African-American women ... face a worse cancer incidence and mortality rate than most other ethnic groups and poor African-American women are at an even greater disadvantage," said Ann Klassen, an associate professor at Johns Hopkins University's Bloomberg School of Public Health.

"Improving diet is one effective way to help these women lower their risk for developing cancer," Klassen said, adding that the women in the study went on to participate in a program aimed at improving nutrition.

Cancer risk can be assessed using measures that include diet, age, ethnicity and genetic factors. The study was relevant not just to black women in cities elsewhere but to poor women from other ethnic groups, researchers said.

The findings were presented at a conference in Atlanta of the American Association for Cancer Research.

The study also found a link between depression, smoking and poor diet, and determined that women born in the U.S. capital were more likely to have an unhealthy diet than women who had moved to the city from elsewhere.

CANCER DEATH RATES CONTINUE TO FALL

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Death rates from cancer continue to fall in the United States, dropping more than 2 percent per year from 2002 through 2004, cancer experts reported on Monday.

They found important declines in deaths from lung, prostate and colorectal cancers in men, as well as in breast and colon cancer among women. Lung cancer deaths were still on the rise among women but this increase slowed, according to the report.

"The significant decline in cancer death rates demonstrates important progress in the fight against cancer that has been achieved through effective tobacco control, screening, early detection, and appropriate treatment," U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Julie Gerberding said in a statement.

The annual decline in cancer death rates from 2002 to 2004 was nearly twice the decrease of 1.1 percent per year from 1993 through 2002.

"The evidence is unmistakable: we are truly turning the tide in the cancer battle," said John Seffrin, executive officer of the American Cancer Society. "The gains could be even greater if everyone in the U.S. had access to essential health care, including primary care and prevention services."

An estimated 1.4 million Americans will be diagnosed with cancer this year, according to the American Cancer Society, and 560,000 will die of it.

The study was conducted by the National Cancer Institute, the CDC, the American Cancer Society and the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries.

The report finds the incidence of female breast cancer dropped substantially from 2001 through 2004. "This drop is possibly related to declining use of hormone replacement therapy as well as the recently reported decline in use of screening mammography," the groups said in a joint statement.

That may mean actual numbers are down, because hormone replacement therapy can cause breast cancer -- but if women are not getting mammograms, it may mean they have breast cancer but are not being diagnosed. Experts have said it is not yet possible to tell which factor has the bigger effect.

COLON CANCER DOWN

"Colorectal cancer incidence rates decreased by more than 2 percent per year for men and women, likely due to prevention through the removal of precancerous polyps," the statement said. These polyps are removed during colonoscopies, which are recommended for everyone over the age of 50.

Drops in the lung cancer rate can be directly linked to reduced tobacco use -- rates are still going up among women, who began smoking in large numbers long after men did, but also began to kick the habit later.

"The long-term federal investment in cancer research is paying off," said Dr. Nancy Davidson, president of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

"But this impressive pace of progress will slow if we don't recommit to funding cancer research. Adjusted for inflation, cancer research funding has actually declined 12 percent since 2004 -- this has never happened in our nation's history," Davidson added in a statement.

"Without additional funding, the chance to build on the extraordinary progress to date, and provide new treatments for 1.4 million Americans diagnosed with cancer every year, will be delayed or lost."

The American Society of Clinical Oncology has asked for a nearly 7 percent increase in the National Institutes of Health budget.